Exterior siding systems often include a plurality of siding panels, with each of the siding panels formed to simulate a plurality of individual decorative units. For example, each siding panel may be formed to simulate multiple wood siding shakes. As such, each decorative unit is formed to simulate a single siding shake. It should be appreciated that the decorative units may be formed to simulate other siding materials, such as stone, tile, shingles, etc. The siding panel is formed with a space or keyway separating each of the decorative units. In order to provide a pleasing aesthetic appearance, the keyways on each course of siding panels should be horizontally offset from the keyways directly above or below and present a random appearance.
Furthermore, due to the tooling cost associated with manufacturing the siding panels, siding systems are generally manufactured with only one or two different panel designs and/or configurations that are installed in a repeated fashion. If one of the decorative units on the siding panels varies greatly from the other decorative units, a repeated pattern may develop that is visually noticeable. Therefore, most siding systems include decorative units that have only minor variations in size and texture to reduce the possibility of a visually noticeable repeated decorative unit.